SEATTLE — Minutes before tipoff Sunday evening, the Huskies jogged onto the court at Hec Edmundson Pavilion with one very conspicuous absence.
Trailing his teammates by a few seconds and walking with a noticeable limp, Jon Brockman made his way onto the floor while being tracked by thousands of curious eyes.
Most of the 7,280 in attendance wanted to know what was wrong with Washington’s star forward — he sprained his right ankle in practice Saturday — and concern No. 2 was about how the Huskies would respond without Brockman.
For most of the night, Washington fared pretty well without Brockman, building several double-digit leads against Portland State. A furious comeback by the Vikings made for a tense finish, however, with the Huskies managing to hang on for an 84-83 victory over last year’s Big Sky Conference champs.
“I was really nervous about that today, because we expected Jon to play until shoot around,” said junior forward Quincy Pondexter. “We wanted our best player to be out there, and when you don’t have it you look at your team and see who is going to step up. I think Matthew (Bryan-Amaning) did a great job today stepping up, and I think as a team the guys on the bench did a great job.”
Bryan-Amaning indeed stepped up Sunday night, doing a pretty solid Brockman impersonation with 23 points and 12 rebounds, both career highs. Bryan-Amaning, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, bested his previous career high of 18 points, which he established in Washington’s last game.
Pondexter also helped ease the pain of Brockman’s absence with 21 points and nine rebounds, and none were bigger than the last rebound and resulting points. Washington led by nine points at halftime, and enjoyed a double-digit lead for most of the second half, but Portland State battled back with a 16-1 run to cut Washington’s lead down to one point with 1 minute, 4 seconds remaining in the game.
That’s when Pondexter came up with his biggest basket of the night, tipping in an Isaiah Thomas miss with 25 seconds left to end the Portland State run and give Washington a three-point lead. Pondexter admitted that he only got one finger — he pointed to the ring finger on his left hand — on the ball, and wasn’t necessarily trying to knock the ball in.
“I was trying to get a hand on it and I though I was tipping it to the other side, so I was trying to run to the other side, and the ball went in,” he said with a huge grin. “It was luck of God, that’s what it was.”
Phil Nelson, a former Husky playing against his old team for the first time, missed a 3 on Portland State’s next possession, and Thomas grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Thomas, who finished with 16 points, made one of two free throws to extend the lead to four, then Jeremiah Dominguez made it a two-point game with a quick layup.
Justin Dentmon was fouled after catching the inbound pass, and made both free throws with 4.9 seconds left.
“I knew that we were missing a lot of free throws and I knew that they were going to foul us,” said Dentmon, who finished with 20 points, three assists and four rebounds. “So when coach was drawing up (the play) I was just hoping he’d leave me on the floor and not have me take the ball out so I could be the one to get fouled. When he fouled me I knew I was going to make them.”
Dominic Waters hit a 3 at the buzzer with the Vikings down four, and he and his team lobbied for a foul call, but did not get it. Had a foul been called, however, it certainly wouldn’t have been a given that Portland State would have tied the game, as the Vikings made just 19 of 35 free throw attempts in the game. Washington also struggled at the line, making 15 of 26 attempts.
Nelson, who played for the Huskies two seasons ago before transferring, was a non-factor for most of the night, but nearly brought the Vikings back by himself late in the game. During Portland State’s closing run, he hit three straight 3-pointers in just over a minute to turn a 12-point deficit into a one-possession game.
While Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said playing without Brockman — who is expected to be back for Washington’s next game on Saturday — can teach the Huskies some valuable lessons, it was evident that the Huskies missed their senior leader down the stretch.
“Jon’s a guy that puts out a lot of fires for our team,” Pondexter said. “So when he wasn’t in there, it was really hard, because a lot of plays that you think someone’s going to make, they’re not making them because he isn’t there. He’s a great force for our team on the defensive end just being in the right spots and leading us and talking to us, and it hurt for him not to be out there.”
Portland State coach Ken Bone, whose brother Len coached Brockman at Snohomish High School, admitted he had a mixed reaction when he heard Washington’s All-American candidate was not going to play.
“First of all I feel bad for him, because he’s such a great player and means so much to Washington’s team, you don’t want to see him get injured,” said Bone, who was an assistant coach at Washington before taking the Portland State job after the 2004-2005 season. “… But putting my competitive hat on, it was like, ‘Hey, sweet, Jon’s taking a night off.’”
But on Brockman’s night off, enough Huskies filled the void for Washington to escape with a victory. It was, however, a win that didn’t finish quite as the Huskies would have liked.
“Well I’ll state the obvious,” Romar said to open his postgame press conference. “I didn’t like how we finished the ballgame.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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